Many medical monitors in use today have a port for connecting a temperature probe. This port is often used for connecting a resistive type probe where the monitor measures the resistance of the temperature probe to determine its temperature and thus the temperature of the tissue that the probe is in contact with.
Temperature probes, when they come in contact with a body that is at a temperature different from themselves, generally take about three minutes to adjust to the temperature of that body. The goal of some applications is to continuously measure a patient's temperature over a prolonged period of time such as during an operation. Waiting for a few minutes for a probe to come to temperature before an operation begins is acceptable but other temperature measurements require a faster response time. For example, when a practitioner is taking a patient's temperature once every hour it requires a quick response so the practitioner can acquire the temperature reading and then proceed to other duties.
Predictive type thermometers use techniques to determine or predict what the final stabilized temperature will be before the probe has reached thermal stability. These types of thermometers generally show the predicted temperature on an attached display and are usually not connected to a monitor where other vital signs are taken.
Previous to this invention, a monitor that has been constructed for use with a resistive temperature probe could not readily be adapted for use with a predictive temperature probe. This is because the monitor is designed to receive a resistive input to indicate temperature whereas the output from the predictive probe is a digital output of the temperature. Thus, the output from a predictive probe cannot be input to a monitor designed to receive an input from a resistive probe.
This invention in one embodiment allows a predictive temperature probe to be used with multipurpose monitors that are designed to receive resistive temperature inputs. A patient's temperature can be quickly taken and recorded on the same device as other vital signs. In another embodiment, this invention allows the resistive output of a temperature probe to be modified to reflect other corrections and adjustments as described herein in more detail.